The Harry Winston jewelry store, located near the Champs-Elysees in Paris, was attacked this Saturday by a group of individuals who, without leaving any victims during the robbery, fled with loot whose value had not yet been estimated.
According to French media, one of the assailants had a high-caliber firearm, which he used at least once, without causing any personal injury.
The group broke about a dozen display cases that housed watches and jewelry inside the establishment. At least three of the robbers fled on motorcycles.
Witnesses tell the newspaper Le Parisien that everything happened “very quickly.” “Three or four men with helmets,” according to a source close to the investigation, rushed towards the jewelry store’s windows where they broke nine windows. The employees took refuge while the thieves stole the material, says a witness present in the store.
The thieves left on the two large-displacement motorcycles. Both the store staff – who were confined during the assault and part of the investigation – and the most affected witnesses were treated by the health services.
A 9-year-old boy who witnessed the events tells the French media that he saw the thieves leave the jewelry store from the seventh floor where he lives on Avenue Montaigne. “They were all dressed in black and carrying big bags. I can’t say if they had weapons,” he confided to the journalists present.
This same jewelry store of American origin, located on Avenue Montaigne, was already the target of two robberies, in 2007 and 2008, in which 900 pieces of jewelry with an estimated value of almost 80 million euros were stolen.
In 2015, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced eight men to sentences ranging from 9 months to 15 years in prison for those robberies.
